Professional party metal/thrash crossover ragers Municipal Waste are back with their seventh studio album and what a triumphant return it is too! Their last album Slime And Punishment released back in 2017 (which seems like a really long time ago) was fun but for some reason I was not that into it as I have been with their other stuff. Their 2019 EP however The Last Rager was amazing and showed the band back on form. Electrified Brain thankfully is a continuation of this and smacks of earlier releases like Hazardous Mutation (2005) mixed with a bit of Massive Aggressive(2009)/The Fatal Feast (2012). The band themselves have been around since 2001 so it's no wonder they've slowed down a bit over the years... I am, of course JOKING...they still have that ferocious energy in spades.
Electrified Brain is 14 tracks coming in at about 30 minutes runtime in total, so typical Municipal Waste in that respect. I may have been joking when I said they had slowed down but they do have a couple of tracks that become more chuggy and anthemic in places. It's a great combination of high speed thrash and some catchy headbangers! A couple of the tracks exceeding the average bpm are "High Speed Steel", "Blood Vessel/Boat Jail" and "Putting On Errors" to name but a few. "Grave Dive" was the first single to be released from the album back in April and featured as Scene Point Blanks song of day because we liked it so much, and we still really dig this track. It's a typical sounding Municipal Waste track that is them to a tee, with a great shouty chorus. They've just brought out a fantastic animated video for this song too that features hordes of the undead crawling from their graves to attend a Municipal Waste show plus appearances from the Ramones and Lemmy tending the bar! The band teamed up once more with Pierre Mousquet and Imov Studios who were responsible for the video for "You're Cut Off" from 2012s The Fatal Feast. The entire album is very listenable and flows really well with stand out tracks for me being "Demoralizer", "High Speed Steel" and the absolutely epic "Thermonuclear Protection"! I find that with Municipal Waste you can play any of their albums straight through without skipping or repeating but on this occasion I had to stick "Thermonuclear Protection" on repeat several times before I could move on. I would go so far as to say this is my favourite song of the year so far!
Virginian based five piece Municipal Waste have totally knocked shit out the park again with Electrified Brain. It showcases their sound perfectly, their speed, precision and consistency never falters and their energy and songwriting skills are infectious and ridiculous amounts of fun.
Electrified Brain is available digitally through their Bandcamp page. It is also available on CD and 12" vinyl in a various array of colours through many online outlets. Municipal Waste also embark on an epic world tour this year starting in the US early August and hitting the UK and Europe supporting Anthrax Sept, Oct and Nov.
